The Australian dollar on Monday morning weakened below parity against the Singapore dollar for the first time since it last closed below that level in March 2009 during the global financial crisis. One Australian dollar could buy $0.9981 Singapore dollars as at 11.20am on Monday.

UBS Group reported second-quarter profit that beat analyst estimates as income from managing funds for the wealthy more than doubled on lower costs and equity trading rose to the highest in three years. Net income climbed to 1.21 billion Swiss francs (S$1.73 billion) from 792 million francs a year earlier, Switzerland's largest bank said Monday in a statement.

Malaysia's ringgit hit a 17-year low on Monday as a global slump in commodity prices added to concerns over sluggish exports, while investors braced for a US Federal Reserve meeting that might take another step toward lifting interest rates. The ringgit eased 0.1 per cent to 3.8110 per US dollar, its weakest since September 1998.

China's stocks tumbled for a second day as a decline in industrial profits added to concern the nation's economic slowdown is deepening. The gauge of Chinese shares traded in Hong Kong has lost 14 per cent in the past month, the worst performance among 93 global benchmark indexes tracked by Bloomberg.

The Straits Times

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